8.3 CM HIGH; PHOTOGRAPHEDAT ARCHAEOLOGICAL
MUSEUM, FLORENCE
CALENDAR OF OFFERINGS to
the gods, some 70 words spiral
inwardon both sides of the
Maglianolead, one of more
than 13,000 known Etruscan
inscriptions.
Around 700 B.C. -only half a century after the Greeks rediscov
ered writing-literacy burst across Etruria. As with everything
they borrowed from the Greeks in their early years, the Etruscans
changed the Greek alphabet to suit themselves.
"The Etruscans had no g sound, so they made it a c. That's why
we have abc rather than alpha, beta, gamma," explains Larissa
Bonfante. "The Etruscans passed some of their alphabet on to the
Romans, who passed it on to us."
Etruscan paintings and sculpture often depict books-probably
of folded linen. So we assume that the Etruscans wrote copiously.
At least 13,000 examples of Etruscan writing still exist. Unfortu
nately most are less interesting than "Ana mini zinake remiru."
They tend to be short inscriptions in tombs or on pots. Many are re
ligious or official notations. The longest writing sample is a sacred
ritual book of about 1,200 legible words. It was written on a linen
cloth that was used later to wrap an Egyptian mummy. How the
book reached Egypt is unknown.
Scholars can read Etruscan, as I can read Italian. But like my
comprehension of Italian, they don't know enough words to under
stand much of what they read.
"What would be known of the English language if there were
NationalGeographic,June 1988
726